He said the Sabah election committee members were frustrated with their Peninsular counterparts for taking over when it was earlier agreed that the state team would take the lead.

Rosli said many divisions that held their elections today complained to him that the JPP members from the peninsula, who were initially sent here to help out, had instead outnumbered the Sabahan members and overridden them at the voting centres.

“I was told that their numbers outnumber ours and this is not what had been decided earlier,” he said, adding that the initial agreement was to have a 6:5 ratio of Sabah and central election committee members in the state.

Rosli is also discouraged by claims that central election committee members have allowed candidates to enter the voting centres.

This is clearly in violation of the party’s polling rules, he said.

Rosli said the interference was also unfair to Sabah PKR election workers, who had gone through specific training to prepare for the party polls.

He also told a local online news portal that he had personally called PKR election chairman Rashid Din to ask for clarification on the matter, and the latter had said that the central election committee members were carrying out his instructions.

Yesterday, the election in the Keningau division had to be stopped after the candidate for the deputy president’s post, Rafizi Ramli, was allegedly assaulted at the polling centre.

Police had to step in after an argument between Rafizi and a group of party members led to a fracas.

Rafizi was earlier explaining something to a woman inside the polling centre when some men jeered at him.

When Rafizi attempted to confront a man who shouted expletives at him, his supporters outside the venue shouted at the group in his defence.

Things turned ugly when some men forced their way into the polling centre, ripping apart a wire mesh built onto the wooden wall of the building.

Rafizi was later escorted away by about 50 of his followers as some continue to throw insults at him.

A party source said Rafizi was “punched” from the back after he confronted the group arguing with him earlier.

It was understood that he lodged a police report over the incident.

Today, 13 PKR divisions cast their votes after polling at 11 other divisions was completed yesterday.